Liu Yifei

Chinese actress Liu Yifei was born An Feng in Wuhan, China, in 1987. She changed her surname after her parents were divorced and she was raised by her mother, a dancer and actress. From ages 10 to 15, Liu and her mother lived in New York City, but then returned to China where she enrolled in the prestigious Performance Institute at the Beijing Film Academy. Immediately upon entering the Academy, Liu was cast in a lead role on the TV series "The Story of a Noble Family" (CCTV, 2003), an historical romance. Over the course of her time at the Academy, she would star in three more series, "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" (CCTV, 2003), "Chinese Paladin" (CTV (Taiwan)/CBG (China), 2005), and "Return of the Condor Heroes" (CCTV, 2006). She left television behind, and in 2008, appeared in her first feature film, appearing as one of the prominent female characters in the Chinese-American wuxia film "The Forbidden Kingdom" (2008), starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Over the next nine years, Liu would star in at least a dozen films, including "The Assassins" (2012) with Chow Yun-Fat, and "Outcast" (2014), starring Nicolas Cage. In 2017, it was announced that Liu would play the title role in the live action adaptation of the classic animated film "Mulan" (1998).